Dave Thomas kicks off his RailsConf keynote mocking rubychicks.com, and righteously so. Odd because I had just been thinking Piers Cawley was overreacting, but if anything the problem's bigger and more continuous than I'd thought.
Actually I was just echoing Chad Fowler. I think he's right, though. Interesting thing, I noticed the musician thing on your blog; Chad used to be a professional musician, and I used to DJ, organize raves, and press up white label records. And the other person I know who's blogged about this with some irritation is David Black, who also plays I think both violin and piano? Some weird mini-zeitgeist or something there. Musicians invading geek-world and making it habitable for women.
Giles, the musician thing is probably more general than you think. I bet you it applies to poets and writers, painters, potters, etc. Two common types of people that are deep into OSS are the "programing and only programming, if it is not computers don't talk to me" types and the well rounded "hey this programming thing is a really mentally stimulating, but then so is music and art and social engineering and... " types. For every de Vince there are many who did nothing in life but oil on canvas. Seems pretty clear to me which type changes the world.
I am a lifetime programmer but I don't think that has reduced my sphere of interest; if anything developing in any one area seems to bring out my appreciation for others. e.g. I like drawing. And viola. And plenty more! Life is too short for limitting stereotypes.
Are you a hacker who likes to make music? You know how you feel precise control when you write code you understand, but you have to filter your understanding of your music through oversimplified GUIs which sometimes have terrible UX? I made a series of videos which teaches you how to write music sequencing software in Node.js and CoffeeScript. When I do it, I experience a clarity which makes it easy for me to make more exciting sounds. You may have the same experience. Upcoming episodes will also teach you how to use simple probabilistic artificial intelligence to write code which writes its own music (which I've already done in Ruby).
Hey, you're the guy who suggested that we should destroy geek culture.
ReplyDeleteActually I was just echoing Chad Fowler. I think he's right, though. Interesting thing, I noticed the musician thing on your blog; Chad used to be a professional musician, and I used to DJ, organize raves, and press up white label records. And the other person I know who's blogged about this with some irritation is David Black, who also plays I think both violin and piano? Some weird mini-zeitgeist or something there. Musicians invading geek-world and making it habitable for women.
ReplyDeleteGiles, the musician thing is probably more general than you think. I bet you it applies to poets and writers, painters, potters, etc. Two common types of people that are deep into OSS are the "programing and only programming, if it is not computers don't talk to me" types and the well rounded "hey this programming thing is a really mentally stimulating, but then so is music and art and social engineering and... " types. For every de Vince there are many who did nothing in life but oil on canvas. Seems pretty clear to me which type changes the world.
ReplyDelete"Programming and only programming" has been referred to as Larval Stage though. Lots of people go through it, I know I have.
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ReplyDeleteI am a lifetime programmer but I don't think that has reduced my sphere of interest; if anything developing in any one area seems to bring out my appreciation for others. e.g. I like drawing. And viola. And plenty more! Life is too short for limitting stereotypes.
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